PROFILE: How Anita Among rose to become Uganda’s new Speaker of Parliament

The former deputy speaker of parliament Hon. Anita Annet Among was on Friday afternoon elected the new Speaker of parliament replacing deceased Jacob Oulanyah.

With over 400 MPs of the 529 legislators subscribing to the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM), It was widely expected that Among would be elected the next Speaker of Parliament due to the party’s majority factor.

Among returned 401 votes out of the 468 MPs who voted on Friday at Kololo Independence grounds, while her rival Asuman Basalirwa of the opposition side managed only 66 votes. The election exercise returned only one invalid vote.

But who is Anita Among? We take an in-depth review of the new speaker’s profile, history, career and political journey to the position.

Profile Summary

Anita Annet Among is a Ugandan accountant, lawyer and politician who serves as the Speaker of the 11th Parliament of Uganda. She also concurrently serves as the elected member of parliament for the Bukedea District Women Constituency, the same position she held in the 10th parliament.

Born 23 November 1973 in rural Bukedea, Anita Among says she shares her life story with girls at every opportunity to encourage them and let them know that with determination they can achieve their potential.

Among attended local schools for her elementary and secondary education. She graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree, from Makerere University, in 2005. In 2008, she was awarded a Master of Business Administration degree, also by Makerere University.

In 2018, Among graduated from Kampala International University, with a Bachelor of Laws degree. At that time she was in the process of attaining qualification as a Chartered Certified Accountant.

Among who is an accountant and a lawyer says she shares whatever she has with the community because she knows what it means to lack because of coming from a humble background where life was a struggle.

In the 10^th Parliament (2016-2021), Among, who had come to Parliament as an independent, served as the Vice-Chairperson of the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE).

In what could arguably make her an outstanding role model in never giving up on big dreams, Among for two parliamentary election cycles in 2007 when Bukedea district was created and 2011 lost the District Woman Representative seat to Rose Akol of the National Resistance Movement political party. And when she contested for the third time as an independent in 2016, she was able to win.

Among has a big network of experts in academia having worked as a lecturer at Makerere University Business School and Kampala International University. There is a high likelihood that Among will make use of her big network of scholars to turn around Parliament and to initiate ideas for swift social-economic transformation of the country.

Perhaps owing to her academic background and having achieved so much at a relatively young age, Among is determined to set new records for Parliament in terms of transacting business swiftly.

Since the onset of the 11^th Parliament Jacob Oulanyah got indisposed, Anita has presided over most of the decisions of Parliament as Deputy Speaker and through her aggressiveness so much has been achieved in a very short period of time.

Among first earned national recognition in 2012 when to the shock of many defeated high sounding Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) stalwarts who included Salaam Musumba, Augustine Ruzindana, Christopher Kibazanga, John Kazoora and Ingrid Turinawe to become the party’s flag bearer for the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA).

Among was however unable to go through when Parliament voted because the ruling NRM party at that time decided to isolate FDC and backed candidates for the Democratic Party (DP) and Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC).

Among later joined the ruling party and while contesting for the Bukedea Woman MP in 2021, Among went through unopposed as the NRM flag bearer.

The Deputy Speaker, who has presided over of most of the Parliament sittings, has repeatedly directed committees to expeditiously transact assignments as part of her efforts of ensuring Parliament gets to greater heights in performance.

Within just 9 months of the 11^th Parliament, so many Bills and reports have been debated and approved by Parliament. There is a high likelihood that within the first year of the 11^th Parliament, Parliament will have transacted more business than any other Parliament in Uganda’s history has ever transacted in a single year.

In the past Parliaments, there was a culture of committees taking ages to finalize Bills and other assignments given to them which Among has stopped.

While chairing Parliament on February 2, 2022, Among gave a deadline of February 10, 2022, to all committees that were yet to complete processing Bills before them.

“Most of the Bills were sent back to the committees and have not been brought back. Of the nine, only two are still within 45 days. The seven have expired and I expect them to be brought to the House as per the Rules of Procedure. The rules also stipulate that if you do not bring the reports within the 45 days, the House can go ahead and have the Bills read for the second time,” Among said.

Perhaps because of her humble background in rural Bukedea, Among is very passionate about improving the welfare of people. And this was one of her key promises even when she was campaigning to become Deputy Speaker.

In a very short time, Among has attended constituency fundraising drives for various legislators in various parts of the country during which she has generously availed financial assistance.

The Bukedea woman MP recently surprised many when on women’s day took off time from her busy schedule and visited the home of an ordinary parliament police officer in Nsambya Police Barracks.

Having seen the appalling state in which police officers, Among while chairing Parliament rallied legislators and other decision-makers to ensure that the welfare of police officers including their salaries are improved to enable them live decently.